Volume Ii Part 13 (1/2)
IV. _The Birds dismist (while you remain) Bore back their empty Carr again: Then You, with Looks divinely mild, In evry heavnly Feature smil'd, And ask'd what new Complaints I made, And why I call'd you to my Aid_?
V. _What Phrenzy in my Bosom rag'd, And by what Care to be a.s.swag'd?
What gentle Youth I could allure, Whom in my artful Toiles secure?
Who does thy tender Heart subdue, Tell me, my_ Sappho, _tell me Who_?
VI. _Tho now he Shuns thy longing Arms, He soon shall court thy slighted Charms; Tho now thy Offrings he despise, He soon to thee shall Sacrifice; Tho now he freeze, he soon shall burn, And be thy Victim in his turn_.
VII. _Celestial Visitant, once more Thy needful Presence I implore!
In Pity come and ease my Grief, Bring my distemper'd Soul Relief; Favour thy Suppliants hidden Fires, And give me All my Heart desires_.
Madam _Dacier_ observes, there is something very pretty in that Circ.u.mstance of this Ode, wherein _Venus_ is described as sending away her Chariot upon her Arrival at _Sappho's_ Lodgings, to denote that it was not a short transient Visit which she intended to make her. This Ode was preserved by an eminent _Greek_ Critick, [3] who inserted it intire in his Works, as a Pattern of Perfection in the Structure of it.
_Longinus_ has quoted another Ode of this great Poetess, which is likewise admirable in its Kind, and has been translated by the same Hand with the foregoing one. I shall oblige my Reader with it in another Paper. In the mean while, I cannot but wonder, that these two finished Pieces have never been attempted before by any of our Countrymen. But the Truth of it is, the Compositions of the Ancients, which have not in them any of those unnatural Witticisms that are the Delight of ordinary Readers, are extremely difficult to render into another Tongue, so as the Beauties of the Original may not appear weak and faded in the Translation.
C.
[Footnote 1: Leucas]
[Footnote 2: Ambrose Philips, whose Winter Piece appeared in No. 12 of the _Tatler_, and whose six Pastorals preceded those of Pope. Philips's Pastorals had appeared in 1709 in a sixth volume of a Poetical Miscellany issued by Jacob Tonson. The first four volumes of that Miscellany had been edited by Dryden, the fifth was collected after Dryden's death, and the sixth was notable for opening with the Pastorals of Ambrose Philips and closing with those of young Pope which Tonson had volunteered to print, thereby, said Wycherley, furnis.h.i.+ng a Jacob's ladder by which Pope mounted to immortality. In a letter to his friend Mr. Henry Cromwell, Pope said, generously putting himself out of account, that there were no better eclogues in our language than those of Philips; but when afterwards Tickell in the _Guardian_, criticising Pastoral Poets from Theocritus downwards, exalted Philips and pa.s.sed over Pope, the slighted poet took his revenge by sending to Steele an amusing one paper more upon Pastorals. This was ironical exaltation of the worst he could find in Philips over the best bits of his own work, which Steele inserted (it is No. 40 of the _Guardian_). Hereupon Philips, it is said, stuck up a rod in b.u.t.tons Coffee House, which he said was to be used on Pope when next he met him. Pope retained his wrath, and celebrated Philips afterwards under the character of Macer, saying of this _Spectator_ time,
_When simple Macer, now of high renown, First sought a Poets fortune in the town, Twas all the ambition his high soul could feel, To wear red stockings, and to dine with Steele._]
[Footnote 3: Dionysius of Halicarna.s.sus.]
No. 224. Friday, November 16, 1711. Hughes.
--Fulgente trahit constrictos Gloria curru Non minus ignotos generosis
Hor. Sat. 6.
If we look abroad upon the great Mult.i.tudes of Mankind, and endeavour to trace out the Principles of Action in every Individual, it will, I think, seem highly probable that Ambition runs through the whole Species, and that every Man in Proportion to the Vigour of his Complection is more or less actuated by it. It is indeed no uncommon thing to meet with Men, who by the natural Bent of their Inclinations, and without the Discipline of Philosophy, aspire not to the Heights of Power and Grandeur; who never set their Hearts upon a numerous Train of Clients and Dependancies, nor other gay Appendages of Greatness; who are contented with a Competency, and will not molest their Tranquillity to gain an Abundance: But it is not therefore to be concluded that such a Man is not Ambitious; his Desires may have cut out another Channel, and determined him to other Pursuits; the Motive however may be still the same; and in these Cases likewise the Man may be equally pushed on with the Desire of Distinction.